The Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP, the current name for food stamps) is often thought of as something for the unemployed, though nothing could be further from the truth. Actually, 73 percent of those enrolled in the country’s major public benefits programs are from working families, just stuck in jobs whose paychecks don’t cover life’s basic necessities.

The United States now has the highest proportion of low-wage workers in the developed world, most of whom receive only the minimum wage (the federal standard is $7.25 an hour) and typically are capped by their employers well below 40 hours a week, so they won’t qualify for benefits. Hard work doesn’t always pay off. The math: even full-time work at $7.25 an hour only adds up to $290 a week. How do you live on that?

You don’t. You turn to food stamps and other forms of public assistance to make up the gap between minimum wage and a living wage. Which is just what large minimum-wage employers count on you doing.

“Hamas’ 1988 charter states that Hamas “strives to raise the banner of Allah over every inch of Palestine” (Article Six). Article Thirty-One of the Charter states: “Under the wing of Islam, it is possible for the followers of the three religions—Islam, Christianity and Judaism—to coexist in peace and quiet with each other.”

“In an April 2008 meeting between Hamas leader Khaled Mashal and former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, an understanding was reached in which Hamas agreed it would respect the creation of a Palestinian state in the territory seized by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War, provided this were ratified by the Palestinian people in a referendum. Hamas later publicly offered a long-term truce with Israel if Israel agreed to return to its 1967 borders and grant the “right of return” to all Palestinian refugees.[70] In November 2008, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh re-stated that Hamas was willing to accept a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders, and offered Israel a long-term truce “if Israel recognized the Palestinians’ national rights”.[71] In 2009, in a letter to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Haniyeh repeated his group’s support for a two-state settlement based on 1967 borders: “We would never thwart efforts to create an independent Palestinian state with borders [from] June 4, 1967, with Jerusalem as its capital.”[72] On December 1, 2010, Ismail Haniyeh again repeated, “We accept a Palestinian state on the borders of 1967, with Jerusalem as its capital, the release of Palestinian prisoners, and the resolution of the issue of refugees,” and “Hamas will respect the results [of a referendum] regardless of whether it differs with its ideology and principles.”[73]”

Pretty extreme and I don’t agree with the ideals of the goals considering that I am basically neo-Pagan. However nothing stated in here has shown that Hamas’s objective is to kill all Jews… I think the problem however is they want to get rid of Israel and take it back for themselves. The idea isn’t right or realistic… But this does this make them as bad as ISIS or Al-Qaeda? I don’t really think so.

No one is making up Hamas’s commitment to the eradication of Israel and Jews.

“So shouldn’t we also listen when Hamas tells Palestinians that they should never accept the existence of Israel—and that victory will not come until they have wiped out not only the Jewish state but all the Jews?”

That quote is not fictional or propaganda, Jeff.

I am totally empathetic, as you are, with the plight of the Palestinian people, but they will never be at peace if they advocate genocide of Jewish people instead of demanding Israel be held accountable for its attempted genocide of Palestinians. The ONLY sustainable path for both is that leadership emerges, a la Gandhi and Nelson Mandela, that advocates for non-violent protest and resolution. Anything else ensures lots of dead children and ever more enriched arms merchants.

Problem is in wikipedia every section has this link where you can locate where it can be found as valid sources. So far this article is short on facts and still heavy with bias. Why? Because Israel refuses to sit down with them. Why is that? Oh yeah because Netanyahu are not interested in two state solutions either. They are both completely lying and I don’t trust either to deliver for each other.

Bravo, Bravo, Bobfr! I wish I had read your commentary before i posted my inarticulate one earlier. Hamas must give up the silly notion that they can exterminate Israel with their crude rockets. Likewise, Israelis have to give up the silly notion that they can occupy and oppress millions of Palestinians in perpetuity. There are really only two options for ending the Israeli-Plaestinian conflict. Either you create a two state, Jewish and Palestinian; or you create a secular democratic state that treats as equal all citizens–without regard to religion, language, and national origin– who now reside in the entire territory, which was once known as Palestine, before the 1947 partition that created the Jewish homeland.

… have zero illusions Ambassador Rice or anyone with authority will ever read it, let alone consider it. But, what matters is that it’s my best effort to suggest a way to bring to a close centuries of hate and murder. Only wish I could do more.

Pity….why do you think that we have passed the point of a 2 state soution

I think of the lessons of SA…the lessons of our experiences here in America… which has shown that it is difficult to incorporate the needs and aspirations of the oppressed with the oppressor …but between Israel and Palestine….I do not want to say that it is impossible….because as Mandela has said…it is impossible til it is done….but I do not have much optimism for the possibility of a unified state that will produce a free Palestine….

won’t happen Bobfr only because I can see this through my lens as a black woman in America. Arabs would not be treated equally at least not any time soon. Look at our own history with slavery in the US and think about how our POTUS is viewed by not only the radical nut jobs but elected officials in Congress in 2014. Look at all the stop and frisk laws that unfairly target black and minority men. Look at our legal system….

A 2 state solution is the only thing that will work at this time. That should provide some semblance of getting started on the path to equality.

my spirit has been weighed down by the hatred and venom….from our Congress….and by the continued tragedy of death and destruction in GAZA…
I have been heartened by the world wide protest….and the way that twitter connects us to what the MSM does not tell us…feeling the need to do something in my own personal space…to contribute in my small way to the solution…..

register voters…do some organizing in my neighborhood…

decided to go out for breakfast this morning with my sister…maybe I can get my sister to join me in my organizing efforts….smiling….